The 531’ (162 m) Eclipse, which is owned by Roman Abramovich, is the largest superyacht in the world.
As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian Oligarchs are having to rush their superyachts to friendly ports or risk having them seized.
The U.S. and the leaders of the European Commission (France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada) have formed a transatlantic task force to hunt down and freeze the assets of sanctioned individuals and companies within their jurisdictions. It was widely reported that indicated Russian oligarchs would have their yachts seized where possible. But only seven oligarchs have been listed by the White House and Department of Treasury for sanction because they are “Putin KGB cronies.” None of them own the most famous Russian superyachts, which have all turned off their AIS transponders, and are now, we presume, steaming to safe harbours.
It has been widely reported that virtually all of Russia’s oligarchs have Vladimir Putin’s tacit approval for their business dealings, if not his outright help. The Guardian recently published: “Bill Browder, a financier and critic of Russia, said those on Alexi Navalny’s list of 35 of Putin’s oligarch “enablers” should now be sanctioned by the UK, adding: ‘You don’t get to be an oligarch unless you’re basically in cahoots with Putin.’”
Russian oligarchs are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth during the era of Russian privatisation in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former USSR officials (mostly in Russia and Ukraine) as a means to acquire state property.
As the Russian army continues to attack Ukraine, there is a possibility that at some point, the oligarch/yachtsmen will eventually be targeted. But, with the warning they have gotten, we expect that all of their superyachts are currently steaming to safe harbors with their AIS transponders turned off.
